MHR 600 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Society For Human Resource Management, Essentialism, Absenteeism
Document Summary
Principles for an improved definition of diversity: diversity is expansive but not without boundaries. Although diversity affiliations are often portrayed as absolute and clearly distinct, they are fluid, continuous, and indefinite. People move in and out of diversity categories: diversity is based on both similarities and differences. Individuals will view themselves as having qualities in common rather than narrowly defining themselves in terms of how they differ: diversity is rooted in non-essentialist thought. Essentialism is damaging because it encourages individuals to immediately attribute their colleagues" thoughts and behaviors to their demographic category membership. (litvin. A non-essentialist framework transcends such generalizations while encouraging us to see the complexities of each individual: diversity is directly related to how one experiences work. Diversity is often incorporated superficially in an organization when it should be considered in terms of its direct relationship with how employees perceive and perform their work and interact with both their colleagues and those outside their organizations.